Saturday, June 9, 2012

Andy Kroll, the Washington DC correspondent for Mother Jones magazine and an associate editor for TomDispatch, talks about the recent gubernatorial recall election in Wisconsin and what Scott Walker's win means for the future.

Electoral politics, probably in all advanced democracies (leaving aside discussion about the accuracy of that label), are not democratic. They are elite serving. Isn't that obvious? That was obvious before Citizens United vs FEC.

Participating in them legitimizes them. Corporatocracy Parties are always going to need enough voters to keep the system alive, to legitimize it, so as to be able to say to the people "You have democracy." (The Christian Right for example, can be counted on to vote for Republicans - once their morality buttons have been pushed. But what is Christian about the Ameriican ruling class?) Once the people know that they don't have democracy, then they just may be interested in looking for it. Although, sometimes one wonders.

The people of Wisconsin taught their 'leaders' that they can do any rotten thing they want to them and they will take it and say thanks. (And they've taught all onlookers within and outside of the corporatocracy that they are unable to critically think, analyze and assess, which are the most important things you have to do to survive.) That's why you see those leaders advance from nasty to nastier. The consequences of no consequences (for abusiveness such as that which we've seen Scott Walker unleash) is more bad behavior.

Laws like NDAA and CISPA don't just enable the state to more freely police citizens. They also jettison other laws (habeus corpus, privacy) that in a normal society would not be jettisoned without discussion and public support. The fascism in America, and elsewhere (such as in my country of Canada) is ramping up, but in leaps and bounds, with my pathetic Napoleon wannabe prime minister and lesser ministers mimicking all of the anti-civil society measures adopted in the U.S. (Quebec's Law 78 for example, essentially making protests illegal, similar to HR347 giving American security agencies the power to suppress protests)

The people are cattle, partly by design but also because they themselves haven't cared enough. And there's no law you can pass to make people care. Yes, People are squawking. Naturally. When you pinch someone, he squawks. But squawking isn't fightback. Not all of us have been grazing mind you. But too many of us have been. Still, If the squawking leads to some fightback - once the necessary education and politicization takes place - then I guess that's good.